Good afternoon,

Here's the latest news from rural America...

BIDEN BIDS FOR A SECOND TERM

• Today, President Biden formally announced his bid for a second term. His administration has a dedicated focus on rural America.
   
• In the past two years, the president has overseen an unprecedented economic recovery from a global pandemic and signed meaningful legislation including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPs and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act to expand job opportunities and make historic investments into rural America's energy, agriculture, healthcare, and infrastructure.

ABORTION PILL ACCESS PRESERVED – FOR NOW

• On Friday, the Supreme Court preserved full access to the abortion pill mifepristone while legal battles over abortion medication play out in lower courts. The justices put a hold on a lower court's anti-abortion ruling that nullified the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approval of mifepristone, despite decades of scientific evidence in favor of its safety.

• Mifepristone remains available for use up to 10 weeks into a pregnancy and can be ordered by mail, though medication abortions are largely restricted in over a dozen states. Further challenges to mifepristone are likely headed to the Supreme Court again as early as next year – right in the middle of the presidential election.

• Since the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade and fifty years of precedent, abortion has proved to be a galvanizing issue for voters throughout the country. OCP founder Heidi Heitkamp joined ABC's This Week to discuss the importance of abortion in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
   
• Nearly two thirds of Americans opposes laws banning access to medication abortion, including majorities of independents (57 percent) and Republicans (55 percent).
   
• Despite strong support for preserving access, yesterday, North Dakota enacted a near-total abortion ban – merely a month after the State Supreme Court temporarily blocked a similar ban from taking effect.
   

DEBT DEBACLE ON THE TABLE

• Food insecurity remains a massive issue facing our communities – urban, suburban, and rural. While pandemic-era emergency expansions of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other government relief sought to help our communities, just this month, more than 11.4 million households collected free groceries from food banks, up 15 percent from a year ago.

• SNAP is the largest method of feeding the growing numbers of hungry Americans, but the Limit, Save, Grow Act proposed by Republicans in Congress would impose stricter work requirements to the program that will limit food access.

• The bill is part of Republicans' plan to address the impending debt default. The White House is asking for a clean lift of the debt ceiling, but Republicans are opting instead to tie the debt to budget limits – a gamble that may result in nationwide financial disruption and exacerbate food insecurity for many American families.

• This Friday, the House Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit is holding a hearing on Producer Perspectives on the 2023 Farm Bill.

• OCP founder Heidi Heitkamp joined CNBC's "Last Call" to discuss the Biden administration's latest policies regarding U.S. business' relationship with China.
   
• Former Secretary of Agriculture and OCP board member Mike Espy authored an op-ed in Agri-Pulse to argue for using the Farm Bill to counter foreign interference.

• The Hill: Earth Day in the year of the farm bill
   
• New York Times: Losing Ballot Issues on Abortion, G.O.P. Now Tries to Keep Them Off the Ballot
   
• US News and World Report: The Democrats' Comeback Tour
   
• Time: The Reason Why American Regions Are Unequal
   
• The Daily Yonder: Study: Rural Healthcare Access Lacking for Minority Populations
   
• The Daily Yonder: The CDC Lacks a Rural Focus.

Be sure to follow the One Country Project on Twitter and Facebook, and check out The Hot Dish podcast.

Donate Now